Holborn tube station
Encyclopedia
Holborn is a station of the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 in Holborn
Holborn
Holborn is an area of Central London. Holborn is also the name of the area's principal east-west street, running as High Holborn from St Giles's High Street to Gray's Inn Road and then on to Holborn Viaduct...

 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, located at the junction of High Holborn
High Holborn
High Holborn is a road in Holborn in central London, England. It starts in the west near St Giles Circus, then goes east, past the Kingsway and Southampton Row, and continues east. The road becomes Holborn at the junction with Gray's Inn Road....

 and Kingsway
Kingsway (London)
Kingsway is a major road in central London in the United Kingdom, designated as part of the A4200. It runs from High Holborn, at its north end in the London Borough of Camden, and meets Aldwych in the south in the City of Westminster at Bush House. It was built in the 1900s...

. Situated on the Piccadilly Line
Piccadilly Line
The Piccadilly line is a line of the London Underground, coloured dark blue on the Tube map. It is the fifth busiest line on the Underground network judged by the number of passengers transported per year. It is mainly a deep-level line, running from the north to the west of London via Zone 1, with...

 (between Covent Garden
Covent Garden tube station
Covent Garden is a London Underground station in Covent Garden. It is on the Piccadilly Line between Leicester Square and Holborn. The station is a Grade II listed building, on the corner of Long Acre and James Street...

 and Russell Square
Russell Square tube station
Russell Square is a London Underground station on Bernard Street, Bloomsbury in the London Borough of Camden. It is a small but busy station, often used by office workers and by tourists who are staying in Bloomsbury's numerous hotels. The station is a Grade II listed building.-History:The station...

) and on the Central Line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...

 (between Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road tube station
Tottenham Court Road is a London Underground station in central London. It is an interchange between the Central line and the branch of the Northern line.On the Central line it is between and , and on the Northern line it is between and...

 and Chancery Lane
Chancery Lane tube station
Chancery Lane is a London Underground station in central London. It is on the Central Line between St. Paul's and Holborn stations. The station is located at the junction of High Holborn, Hatton Garden and Gray's Inn Road with subway entrances giving access to the ticket office under the roadway...

), it is the only station common to the two lines, although the two lines cross each other three times elsewhere. It is in Travelcard Zone 1
Travelcard Zone 1
Fare zone 1 is the central zone of Transport for London's zonal fare system used for calculating the price of tickets for travel on the London Underground, London Overground, Docklands Light Railway and, since 2007, on National Rail services. For most tickets, travel through the zone is charged...

.

It should not be confused with the closed Holborn tramway station
Holborn tramway station
Holborn tramway station was a tram stop underneath Kingsway in central London. It was built in 1906 by the London County Council Tramways as part of the Kingsway tramway subway, a subterranean tram route which was constructed to join the separate networks of tramways in North and South London...

 which was part of the Kingsway tramway subway
Kingsway tramway subway
The Kingsway Tramway Subway is a cut-and-cover Grade II Listed tunnel in central London, built by the London County Council, the only one of its kind in Britain...

.

History

The station was opened by the Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway
The Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway , also known as the Piccadilly tube, was a railway company established in 1902 that constructed a deep-level underground "tube" railway in London. The GNP&BR was formed through a merger of two older companies, the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus...

 (GNP&BR, now the Piccadilly Line) on 15 December 1906 with the name Holborn (Kingsway). Kingsway was a new road, cutting south from High Holborn through an area of cleared slums to Strand
Strand, London
Strand is a street in the City of Westminster, London, England. The street is just over three-quarters of a mile long. It currently starts at Trafalgar Square and runs east to join Fleet Street at Temple Bar, which marks the boundary of the City of London at this point, though its historical length...

. The suffix was dropped from tube map
Tube map
The Tube map is a schematic transit map representing the lines and stations of London's rapid transit railway systems, namely the London Underground , the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground....

s in the 1960s.

The GNP&BR constructed its station where it crossed the Central London Railway
Central London Railway
The Central London Railway , also known as the Twopenny Tube, was a deep-level, underground "tube" railway that opened in London in 1900...

 (CLR, now the Central Line) tunnels running under High Holborn. The CLR had been operating since 1900, and its nearest station, British Museum
British Museum tube station
British Museum tube station was a station on the London Underground's Central Line, located on Bury Place, close to the British Museum in central London, England.-History:...

, was 250 metres to the west.

Despite being built and operated by separate companies, it was common for the underground railways to plan routes and locate stations so that interchanges could be formed between services. This had been done by other lines connecting with the CLR stations at Oxford Circus
Oxford Circus tube station
-External links:* ** ** * Plans of the station after the Victoria Line works , , *...

 and Tottenham Court Road
Tottenham Court Road tube station
Tottenham Court Road is a London Underground station in central London. It is an interchange between the Central line and the branch of the Northern line.On the Central line it is between and , and on the Northern line it is between and...

, but an interchange station was not initially constructed between the GNP&BR and the CLR because the tunnel alignment to British Museum station would not have been suitable for the GNP&BR's route to its Strand station
Aldwych tube station
Aldwych is a closed London Underground station in the City of Westminster, originally opened as Strand in 1907. It was the terminus and only station on the short Piccadilly line branch from Holborn that was a relic of the merger of two railway schemes. The disused station building is close to the...

 (later called Aldwych). The junction between High Holborn and the newly constructed Kingsway was also a more prominent location for a station than that chosen by the CLR. The Central Line platforms were not opened to form an interchange between the lines until 25 September 1933.

The opening of the GNP&BR branch from Holborn to Strand station was delayed until 30 November 1907 by the construction of the tramway subway.

Original configuration of station, 1906

In its original configuration, the GNP&BR station had four platforms. Two platforms catered for through-running services, the other two platforms serving the Aldwych branch. One of these was a through platform whose track connected north of the station to the northbound track to Russell Square, the other was a bay platform where trains terminated.

To enable the southbound tunnel to avoid the branch tunnels to Aldwych, it was constructed at a lower level to the other tunnels and platforms. The tunnel towards Covent Garden (at this point heading southwest) passes under the Aldwych tunnels.

Unlike other stations designed by Leslie Green
Leslie Green
Leslie William Green was an English architect known especially for his design of iconic stations constructed on the London Underground railway system in central London during the first decade of the 20th century....

 for the GNP&BR, the station frontage of Holborn was constructed in stone rather than the standard red glazed terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta
Glazed architectural terra-cotta is a ceramic masonry building material popular in the United States from the late 19th century until the 1930s, and still one of the most common building materials found in U.S. urban environments...

. This was due to planning regulations imposed by the London County Council which required the use of stone for façades in Kingsway. The station entrance and exit sections of the street façade were constructed in granite and the other parts were built in the same style but using Portland stone
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...

.

Station modernised, 1933

A proposal to enlarge the tunnels under High Holborn to create new platforms at Holborn station for the CLR and to abandon British Museum station was originally included in a private bill
Local and Personal Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom
Local and Personal Acts of Parliament are laws in the United Kingdom which apply to a particular individual or group of individuals, or corporate entity. This contrasts with a Public General Act of Parliament which applies to the entire community...

 submitted to parliament by the CLR in November 1913, although the First World War prevented any works taking place.

Like many other central London Underground stations, Holborn was modernised in the early 1930s. The station frontages on Kingsway and High Holborn were partially reconstructed to modernist designs by Charles Holden
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...

. The lifts were removed and a spacious new ticket hall was provided giving access to a bank of four escalator
Escalator
An escalator is a moving staircase – a conveyor transport device for carrying people between floors of a building. The device consists of a motor-driven chain of individual, linked steps that move up or down on tracks, allowing the step treads to remain horizontal.Escalators are used around the...

s down to an intermediate concourse at the level of the new Central Line platforms. These are the second longest escalators on the Underground network, after those at Angel tube station
Angel tube station
Angel tube station is a London Underground station in The Angel, Islington. It is on the Bank branch of the Northern Line, between Old Street and King's Cross St. Pancras stations. It is in Travelcard Zone 1. The tube stop serves as a portal to several Off West End, or fringe theatre, venues,...

. A second bank of three escalators continues down to the Piccadilly Line platforms.

Decline of the Aldwych branch

Competing as it did with the tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

 services along Kingsway, the Aldwych branch was little used even from its opening. In the first year of operation an occasional through service was run, northbound only, to Finsbury Park
Finsbury Park station
Finsbury Park Station is a busy transport interchange in North London. The interchange consists of an interconnected National Rail station, London Underground station and two bus stations. The main entrances are by the eastern bus station on Station Place...

, but this ended in 1908 and following that the branch was operated as a shuttle service between Holborn and Aldwych, primarily working from the through platform.

The bay platform (Platform 6) was rarely used and was taken out of operation in 1917 and converted into rooms for use, at various times, as offices, air-raid shelters, store rooms, an electrical sub-station and a war-time hostel. The eastern of the two tunnels to Aldwych was also decommissioned.

During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 the branch tunnels and Aldwych station were temporarily closed (between 1940 and 1946) and used for storage and as an air-raid shelter.

After the war, the service was restored as a rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...

 service only. In 1993, London Underground announced that the cost of replacing the lifts at Aldwych was uneconomical and the station was scheduled for closure. After a brief postponement, Aldwych station closed on 30 September 1994.

Since 1994, the branch's remaining platform at Holborn (Platform 5) has been used to test mock-up designs for new platform signage and advertising systems.

Incidents and accidents

The Holborn rail crash was an accident on the London Underground
London Underground
The London Underground is a rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and some parts of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex in England...

 that took place on the Central Line
Central Line
The Central line is a London Underground line, coloured red on the tube map. It is a deep-level "tube" line, running east-west across London, and, at , has the greatest total length of track of any line on the Underground. Of the 49 stations served, 20 are below ground...

 at Holborn on 9 July 1980, at about 13:28.

The 13:17 train from Liverpool Street
Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street railway station, also known as London Liverpool Street or simply Liverpool Street, is both a central London railway terminus and a connected London Underground station in the north-eastern corner of the City of London, England...

 to White City
White City tube station
White City tube station is a London Underground station situated on Wood Lane in White City in west London. The station is on the Central Line, between Shepherds Bush and East Acton stations, in Travelcard Zone 2.-History:...

, standing in the westbound platform, was run into by the 12:49 Hainault
Hainault tube station
Hainault is a London Underground station on the Central Line in Hainault in the London Borough of Redbridge. Since 2 January 2007 the station is in Travelcard Zone 4. This station is home to one of the three Central Line depots.-History:...

 to Ealing Broadway train which had been tripped by the emergency system outside the station but failed to stop in time to avoid collision.

The driver of the rear train sustained injuries and was helped from his cab by a passenger but no serious injuries were caused in the accident. Disruption of services occurred as it was necessary to cut the two cabs from the trains before they could be removed from the area.

An inquiry concluded that the accident was caused by the driver of the rear train failing to control his train.

On 8 December 1988, a 17 year old Turkish student was found stabbed to death at the station.

On 21 October 1997, an 11-year old boy was dragged to death by a train when a toggle on his anorak was trapped in the closing doors.

In Music

The station was featured in the music video of the 1983 song, New Song
New Song (Howard Jones song)
"New Song" is the debut single by musician Howard Jones, released in September 1983. The song, from the album Human's Lib, reached number three on the UK Singles Chart. The single spent 20 weeks on the Top 75. In the US, "New Song" peaked at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, although it was not...

 by Howard Jones
Howard Jones (musician)
Howard Jones is a musician, singer and songwriter. According to the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums, "Jones is an accomplished singer-songwriter who was a regular chart visitor in the mid 1980s with his brand of synthpop. Jones, who was equally popular in the U.S., appeared at Live...

, the video for Leftfield's 1996 hit Release The Pressure and in the video for Suede's
Suede (band)
Suede are an English alternative rock band from London, formed in 1989. The group's most prominent early line-up featured singer Brett Anderson, guitarist Bernard Butler, bass player Mat Osman and drummer Simon Gilbert. By 1992, Suede were hailed as "The Best New Band in Britain", and attracted...

 1997 song, Saturday Night. The video clearly shows the 'Kingsway' title still in situ on the Underground roundels.

The station was also featured in the music video of the 1998 song, Turn Back Time
Turn Back Time
"Turn Back Time" is a song by Scandinavian dance-pop group Aqua, released as their seventh single overall, and the third UK release. The single is their third United Kingdom number one. The song featured on the soundtrack for the 1998 film Sliding Doors, and was released across the world the same...

 by Aqua
Aqua (band)
Aqua is a Danish dance-pop group, best known for their 1997 breakthrough single "Barbie Girl". The group formed in 1989 and achieved huge success across the globe in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The group managed to top the UK Singles Chart with their first three singles. The group released two...

. Much of the video was filmed on the abandoned platform 5.

In Film

In Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

's 1996 film Secrets & Lies, estranged mother and daughter Hortence Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Marianne Raigipcien Jean-Baptiste is a British actress and singer of Antiguan and St. Lucian heritage.-Early life:...

 and Cynthia, Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Blethyn
Brenda Anne Blethyn, OBE is an English actress who has worked in theatre, television and film. Blethyn has received two Academy Award nominations, two SAG Award nominations, two Emmy Award nominations and three Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...

, arrange to meet at Holborn tube station.

Transport connections

London Buses
London Buses
London Buses is the subsidiary of Transport for London that manages bus services within Greater London, UK. Buses are required to carry similar red colour schemes and conform to the same fare scheme...

 routes 1, 8, 19, 25, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 98, 168, 171, 188, 242, 243, 521 and X68 and Night Bus routes N1, N8, N19, N35, N38, N41, N55, N68, N91, N98, N171 serve the site of the station.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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